Monday Motivation...Weigh in before Thanksgiving!

It's Thanksgiving week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love the holidays. Since we've had kids it's become even more fun....Making our own traditions and such...

BUT before all the eating and napping that WILL happen this week I needed to measure up!! It's also the end of my 30 day Paleo Challenge...I'd say I followed it about 80% of the time and it did make a huge difference.  

LEFT: October 16, 2013

Weight 177.0

Left Over Baby Belly: 38

Waist: 41

Hips: 45

Thigh: 25

RIGHT: November 19, 2013

Weight 169

Left Over Baby Belly: 37

Waist: 37

Hips: 43

Thigh: 24

That's a total loss of 8 pounds...and the MOST IMPORTANT PART.....8 INCHES!!!!!!!! It has been a LONG time since I've lost that many inches!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BUT the BEST NEWS OF THE ENTIRE MONTH!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

THOSE are the jeans I wore BEFORE I was married!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I actually wore them in public!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And pealed them off as soon as I got home but still they are ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm also 10 miles from my goal of 55 miles in November!!!! 

I run...a lot. And it's actually incredibly peaceful to run in the early morning.  However there are a few downfalls of my love of running.  I've stopped drinking alcoholic beverages..........GASP! I know...lame...But here's why...

1. I have 3 children with the oldest being 4....there's a 100% chance that I will be up no less than 2 times each night and a 99% chance I'll be required by my little gremlins to throw some cereal in a bowl and turn on a show BEFORE 7 a.m. I have not slept through the night since our babe was born 10 months ago. 

2. My love for running and feeling my clothes get looser and looser is SO MUCH MORE FULFILLING!!!!

3. A night of boozing it up with my friends ends in standing in our pantry...eating every cracker, cookie, or loaf of bread I can find...pants optional...........................................................................

Another downfall of my love of running is I miss nap time quite often...Being as cold as it is I don't like taking the babes with me as much so I go on Dana's lunch hour...mid nap time...by the time I run, shower, and eat lunch..the babes are up and ready to gremlin it up for the rest of the day. 

But it's so worth it.

I ran the 3 mile loop I run 3 days a week with my pace in the 8's for the FIRST TIME EVER!! Being that only 7 months ago I could hardly run ONE mile in 15:30 without puking after.............................That's pretty freakin good. 

I've been doing 5-1 minute planks for the last weekish...It's the longest minute of my life. That shit is hard. And Tyler thinks is GREAT fun.  

This challenge has ALMOST made me feel bad for the 3 minute plank I may or may not have made my volleyball team do...almost.......GI Jane wouldn't feel bad for them...

This is a new game...I put each kid on my legs and do leg lifts...I start with Tyler who is about 20 pounds and end with Zack who's pushing 45........ Tyler is to easy....Zack is to hard...Max is juuuuuuuust right. And he LOVES it. But Zack is the one that calls me out if I don't do them..."Mom...you didn't do your exercises with us....come on! It will be so fun!"

Having a membership at a gym with no childcare was NOT a good idea...So I make do with what I have...which is A LOT of small children...

Up next in the running department is a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day...that's totally going to justify the shit ton of pumpkin pie I eat............... Holiday Hustle the first weekend in December...This one will be fun. We're taking the kids...I'm pushing 2 and Dana's pushing 1...I'm still going to beat him don't worry..........And we run through neighborhoods that are all decorated for Christmas...our stroller will have Christmas lights and jingle bells and be BLARING some Christmas music.  Then the following weekend is my first 10K!! Who says you can't run during the winter!?!

Here's some challenges I'm currently doing if anyone wants to join in the fun.

1. Plank...They suck..big time.

2. For the next month I am counting every single thing I put in my mouth on My Fitness Pal...Follow me! Sandrewsabc

3. Running...and more running. At least 12 miles/ week to be exact.

4. Starting the day after Thanksgiving and going through New Years Day I am streaking. Get your mind out of the gutter.............................................................Every day I will run and or do 30 minutes of some sort of workout.  I would really like to run and see how much of a streak I can do BUT I ran 6 days in a row last week and my knees were NOT happy with me. I feel better going every other day and doing something more low impact on the off days.   I read a blog the other day about a man that started a running streak and just celebrated his 2 years of streaking!! 2 full, solid years. Never missing a day.  He started as a 225 pound, out of shape dad and is now going strong as a 180 pound marathon running extraordinaire. It was pretty awesome. So streak on streakers!! 

Next week's post is going to be my New Years Resolution...basically how kick ass 2014 is going to be!!

Monday Motivation
Left: 169 Pounds...Exactly 40 pounds from when I started this blog.
Right: I stopped weighing myself a few weeks before when I tipped the scales at 225...And I still had a month before that sweet babe came into the world.

And yes...almost all of my "before" pictures I'm pregnant....If we don't have any babies in 2014 it will be my first calendar year of NOT being pregnant since we were married in 2008....................................... 

Looking Forward to my 28th Year!!

Happy Birthday to MEEE!!

Happy Birthday to MMMMEEEE!!

Today is my birthday... na na na na na na

Everyone always says birthdays are more fun when you're young...I disagree.  Especially this year.  I'm SO EXCITED for what this year has in store for me and my sweet little family.

It seems like for years on end I have been making babies, feeding babies, changing diapers, and making more babies...

This year... I can say with confidence...that WE WILL NOT BE HAVING ANY BABIES!!  Now let's keep in mind that the only one of our babes that was in the plans was the Max Man...aka the busiest little body in our house... God blessed us with our other two for sure but they were not planned by us...The moral of this paragraph is we are incredibly irresponsible adults....but I'm 99% sure I WON'T BE PREGNANT THIS YEAR!!

So why is that exciting?!?! Because I've started to fill up my running schedule with some AWESOME events.  From 5k's to Snow Shoes Runs to 1/2 Marathons...My 28th year of life is going to be pretty freakin awesome.

It technically kicked off last weekend with the Ann Arbor Turkey Trot.  The last time I ran this race was in 2011...5 Months after Max Man came shooting into this world. It was my second 5k I had ran and had been actively running for about 3 months.  The things I remember about this raace 2 years ago include:

1. Standing at the start line with one of my lightning fast runner friends thinking I could at least keep her in my sight...

2. Seeing said lightning fast runner friend speed ahead of me after 100 yards.

3. Seeing the mile 2 marker and wanting to jump on the stroller that just went past me.

4. Seeing the mile 3 marker and thinking that last .1 miles was the LONGEST stretch of the entire race.

5. Crossing the finish line just under 37 minutes....Meeting my goal to just be faster than my last race which I was by almost 2 minutes.  BOOM.

6. The awesome video my runner friends husband took of me chugging to the finish line.  I can't find it...but as soon as I do I will share it with all of you...But basically it was this....

The other fun fact about this course is it's a 3 mile loop around Hudson Mills Park that my bff and I walked the spring after our first babes were born.   We would try and run from a bench to a trash can...and if we were feeling daring UP a hill...And I would think..SOMEDAY I HOPE I CAN RUN THIS. But I thought that day would be A LONG time from now. 

3/8/2010: Me and Zack on our first walk around Hudson Mills

Fast forward to November 9, 2013...I ROCKED THE SHIT OUT OF THAT 3 MILE LOOP!!! My goal going into that race was to just beat my last 5k time which was 29:31. 

I love race day...There were quite a few of us from our little town that had made the trek to Hudson Mills to run which made this day that much more fun.  And guess who jumped on the running wagon.......................................... This dead sexy man...Not only is he running semi regularly in a running group throughout the week, but also VOLUNTEERED to come run in this race with me! I'm so proud of him...Running has completely changed my life and it's really nice to be able to share some of it with him...even if he complains the ENTIRE way there and home...ENTIRE.WAY.

Do you see that number 1 he's holding up...it's because he thought he could beat me...Mr. I've-ran-3-times-to-prepare-for-this-race........Mr. I-carb-loaded-last-night-with-a-6-pack. 

RIIIIIIIIIIIIght. 

We lined up at the start line and took some more pictures because that's how I roll...Consider this fair warning friends...If I take your picture...you most likely will end up on my instagram or my blog....Don't worry...it just means you're practically famous.

I wasn't particularly nervous about this race...But I think part of that was the large group of people I knew there.  I'm telling you...there's this support system runners have that's unlike anything else I've ever experienced.  You don't know have know each other well...just know that we are all doing this to better ourselves.  I didn't feel part of this group until I deemed myself a runner...which was DUMB because as soon as I took my first step out the door I was in. 

We sang the National Anthem...crowded the start line...the gun shot and we were off. And I just ran.  I didn't think about anything really. 3 of the 4 women I started the race with were seasoned runners and I knew I wanted to keep within eyesight of them...so I just kept running.  I didn't get tired. I didn't slow down. The park we were running at didn't have any cell phone service so my Map My Run wouldn't work.  I literally had no idea how fast I was going or how far I had gone.  It was kind of nice...peaceful almost. When knew we were getting close to the only hill on the loop which would also be the end of mile 2.  I felt like I was flying.  I still wasn't tired. I still didn't slow down and up the hill I ran. 

Then I started thinking about the last time I ran this race...and how incredibly hard running up this hill was for me.  I remember hating ever step...thinking I needed to walk....thinking I couldn't do it...hating this stretch of the race but knowing how amazing it was going to feel crossing that finish line.  Then I thought back to the days of just walking this path...and coming to this hill thinking how the HELL am I going to make it up there!??! And here I am...running...RUNNING FAST...up this hill...I just kept running faster and stronger.  It felt so incredibly good. So good.

I crossed the finish line 28 minutes and 36 seconds after I started... 28:36. That's an average pace of 9:13/mile...and IN THE TOP 20 IN MY AGE GROUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 20th out of 77 to be exact. 

About 4.5 minutes FASTER than this guy...Mr. I'm-going-to-beat-my-wife-that's-been-kicking-ass-and-taking-names-since-April.

One of my favorite parts of the race is watching the rest of the people finish.  It's awesome to see the pride they have for what they've just accomplished. I ugly cry...every time...without fail. 

So what do you do after crushing your last 5k time by almost a minute!?! Take some pictures with the awesome people that inspire me to keep moving. To keep getting better, faster, and stronger.

That Skinny Hooker that introduced me to this whole concept of running......

Some awesome women from our church....that may or may not have me convinced to do a Triathlon in the spring.........................................................................................

And a few members of the group that got Dana started on the running train.

So what else have I been doing to continue my road to fitness and health? 

1: Buying cute winter running clothes...TJ MAXX rocks my socks. Bright colors, cheap prices....One thing I've noticed about my running attire is it's gotten brighter and tighter...Dana's a fan. 

2. Buying things to deck out my stroller for the Holiday Hustle I'm running in December...It's a night time run through neighborhoods that are all lit up for the holidays...I'm pushing the Max Man who loves everything Christmas...I can't wait to see his face when I turn the lights on on his stroller.

3. Running with two goons.

4. Running in the snow.

5. And trying not to eat ALL THE CANDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My 27th year was pretty awesome...New baby...new friendships...making big steps to a healthier life...

But my 28th year...is going to be FREAKING AMAZING. 

Left: Turkey Trot 2011...about 200 lbs Finished in 36 minutes and 41 seconds

Right: Turkey Trot 2013...172 lbs Finished in 28 minutes and 36 seconds

Just.Keep.Going.

Monday Motivation. Catching up and weighing in!!

I didn't write a whole blog post last week...It's been CRAZY. You know...3 kids...two dogs...coaching...hubby...holidays...whatvs. If you want more frequent awesomeness in your life...or to completely creep my existence. You can follow me on instagram @ sandrewsabc.

So let's catch up. 

A little over 2 weeks ago I was asked to join a paleo challenge.  If you're not familiar with The Paleo Diet Google will be happy to inform you of the ins and outs. Basically...You eat a salad or things that eat salad...Think Paleo...Paleolithic...Did they have this back before processed food consumed the world? Who doesn't love a good challenge? I was in. 

I followed a format that I found on Pintrest and committed to at least a week.  Yeah the challenge is a month but to be completely honest...I have been kicking ass and taking names in the fitness department and there was NO FREAKING WAY I was going to commit to a month of something not knowing how it was going to work with my body.  

Day 1: Take pictures and measurements and PUT THE SCALE AWAY FOR THE NEXT 7 DAYS. Fine. No weighing in for 7 days.  I had stopped losing weight and it had been a month or more since I'd dropped many inches...But I was perfectly ok with that...I truly am in the best shape of my life and I know as long as I keep working my body will keep changing. 

Weight: 177 pounds

Leftover baby gut: 38 inches 

Waist: 41 inches

Hips: 45 inches

Thigh: 25 inches

This was right after running an 8:41 mile...hence the I'm-so-incredibly-proud-of-myself smile.

So the week started. I ate a lot of fruit, chicken, and more fruit, and more chicken.  And if I was feeling daring I would mix some onions in with my chicken. 

Only once did I say, "I bet if they had this during the paleolithic era they would have eaten it." 

Eating incredibly healthy for a week wasn't bad.  And it really helped to ditch some of my remaining bad habits...like night time snacking...It's the devil. So instead of popcorn I would have pineapple and a cup of raspberry tea. 

I continued my usual running schedule and within 2 days I could see a difference especially in my stomach. But no weighing in until day 7. 

I also started to drink a lot more water.  If any of you have tips and tricks for water consumption puh lease help a sister out....I suck at remembering to drink water. Suck like..Oh it's 10:00 at night and all I've had to drink today was a cup of coffee...quick...let's drink a liter of water right before going to bed and get up 584 times to pee. 

So day 7 finally rolled around and on the scale I stepped...

175.

WHAT?!??!??! I lost 2 pound!??!?! It's been MONTHS since I've lost 2 pounds in a week!! BOOOO YA! 

I was pretty excited. 

However...even with the 2 pound weight loss in a week I was going to change up my eating for the following week.  I whole heartily believe in everything in moderation.  Remember my ridiculous addiction to twizzlers? I couldn't tell you the last time I even thought about eating a twizzlers...But as soon as I started this challenge and told myself I COULDN'T have it....It took every ounce of will power not to go buy the super king size bag and eat the entire thing...while hiding in the pantry...so the kids couldn't take any.

So..Week 2 was something like this...fruit, chicken, fruit, chicken, fruit chicken, whole grain english mufifn with peanut butter. So I would say about 85% Paleo and 15% everything in moderation.  This seemed to help with the mental battle I had the first week because the overwhelming urge to clean the dollar store out of every candy known to man subsided. 

The last day of the second week rolled around and I had finally kicked my night time snacking addiction...though  I was still eating pineapple and drinking raspberry tea...and I felt really good.  I got on the scale and...........

173!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holy shit 2 more pounds!! So this time I wanted to check the inches...because that really is what tells me if my body is changing... 

Weight 173

Left over baby belly: 38 (same.................................... bloated..........#ladyprobs)

Waist: 39(-2)

Hips: 44(-1)

Thigh: 24(-1)

 

So in 2 weeks I lost 4 pounds and 4 inches...After a solid 2 months of not dropping any weight or inches at all.  It really is all about what you eat.  Will I continue with the Paleo challenge. Of course...It's a challenge..However  I will continue to modify some things.  Well then you're cheating...NO...I'm being realistic.  I'm not going to mess with all the good I've done. Everything in moderation.  

What else? 

Halloween...It rained. But we still went trick or treating...Like champs.

One of my biggest motivations for wanting to get healthy are my children.  They deserve a fit, active mom.  And lord knows if I don't want to be locked in a padded room I better be able to exhaust these little gremlins so they SLEEP! 6 months ago...If Zack had asked me to give his 45 pound self a piggy back ride for the half a mile we had left to walk I would have told him that daddy had bigger muscles and he could do it.  Now..I hauled that little man all the way back to our house...in the rain...up hill both ways. 

I've been keeping up with running really well.  I'm doing a race every month through the winter.  This coming weekend I have a Turkey Trot.  I ran this same race 3 years ago in about 36 minutes...Saturday I hope to be under 27 minutes. I can't wait. 

I'm also running a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day back in Illinois with my hubby so if any of my friends from ILL want to join let's do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This race is for fun and to make me feel better about the amount of food I WILL consume that day. 

Speaking of my hubby he's jumping on the running train! We ran with a group of friends last week and he went the full 3 miles! 3.16 to be exact. But he still made me push the kids...........................................This running group was awesome.  There were walkers, experienced marathoners, new runners, old runners, and everything in between.  Everyone was so encouraging and supportive.  Surrounding yourself with positive people is such an important part of being successful.  

On Fridays I run with a group of moms.  This is my favorite run of the week.  Partially because we solve all the problems of the world in about 30 minutes.  Also because some of them don't have littles to push in a stroller and are  awesome and volunteer to push my heafties.  So I usually hand them off right before we start a hill...It works really nicely.  

These two are such great running partners. 

I've set a pretty lofty goal for November but where does greatness happen..........OUTSIDE OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE! I average about 30-35 miles/month...November...I will run 55 miles. Why 55? It felt doable...but challenging. I'm 3 days in and 6 miles down. I need to run about 14 miles/week.  This coming from the girl that ran 1 mile/ week 8 months ago........who would have thought. 

I've really dropped the ball with the weight training.  But that cute little sleeping child above...Doesn't like to sleep at night. So when my alarm goes off at 5:30 a.m. and I've only slept for 3 hours...I'm not jumping out of my nice warm bed. Period. But it's a new week...and his top teeth are almost through...Here's to hoping. 

Left: April 2013 209ish pounds

Right: November 2013 173 pounds

JUST.KEEP.GOING